Review: Xavier Nuez/Instituto Cervantes

Just when we might have thought that there was no more to do photographically with the subject of urban ruins, another shooter comes along with a new take on celebrating decay and devastation. Xavier Nuez is out to make “monuments out of shunned places” by taking his camera out on nocturnal walks through sleazy neighborhoods across our great nation, from coast to coast and through the Rust Belt in between, where he is not deterred by madmen, gang bangers or suspicious officers of the law. Using long exposure times (ten to forty minutes) and walking around his chosen sites flashing colored lights, Nuez produces garish, surreal color images of gutted buildings, blasted theaters, crumbling walls, filthy detritus and fallen pylons that are often festooned with graffiti, tags and aerosol art. The result is captivating; Nuez does not merely fulfill the great Aaron Siskind’s imperative to “redeem the ruins;” he transfigures them. Nuez is at his best when he settles on a ramshackle spot in the foreground where he can look out on the glittering city beyond, as when we are treated to collapsed murky green structures of cracking concrete and twisted metal on the shores of Brooklyn through which our eyes pass to contemplate the fantasyland of gleaming golden Manhattan. Nuez makes us want to stay right where he has put us. (Michael Weinstein)